Yorkieabroad

If every job you have had is boring, I'd seriously try to convince yourself that in order to find the greener grass that may or may not exist, you should try to stick one for a bit longer, just to make your CV look a bit more robust. Of course if the medical issues are the reason for leaving rather than the boredom, then that may not be possible.

scrubbedexpat091

Only the last 10 years, but hotel industry wasn't a good fit for me, kind of just fell into it and had trouble getting out of it, but I absolutely hate working in a hotel...

Now the jobs I had at the airline, I absolutely loved and it was never a dull moment, but 9/11 happened, and the lay off's and outsourcing started, all done by seniority and 5 years just wasn't enough to keep a job in the company by the time 2003 came around. Had the layoff's and then mergers not happened, I'd probably be there still..

Now airlines outsource just about everything I could do, so not an option with an airline anymore, just contract companies but they suffer from the high turn over, low pay, no benefits cycle.

Steerpike

I support universal healthcare, obamacare, raising the minimum wage, and other employee protections, but I also feel that, for (and this is not meant to be a scientific definition) highly paid, 'professional', 'salaried' employees, mandating time off is not appropriate. But this is a debate for another day ...

I should be more careful with my suggestions ... you are all raising good points about the 'gap' issue - gaps can cause problems on resumes. I wasn't thinking of months, however; rather, just more than the paltry allowance many companies offer - a 'gap' of 4 weeks, for example, shouldn't raise any eyebrows but still exceeds what many people get each year (or are likely to take at once). For me, I've worked almost continuously for 30 years, and the only gap I ever had was 6 weeks. I've always been open to the idea of a break, but I've been very lucky to have lined up replacement work and was never that interested in pushing for a break. I've also never had to 'apply' (cold) for a job in my life (after the first) - every job I've had, I've been 'solicited' based on prior working relationships (former colleagues who've moved on ahead of me). So for me, the resume has been something of a formality.

The one exception was this last year; my former employee terminated my employment but did so with a rather pleasant package that included a 6-month continuation of salary, and other benefits. For the first time in my life, I took full advantage of this and didn't do a stroke of work, nor lift a finger to find new employment. After 30 years of hard work, I felt it was time to take advantage of the situation (and it was awesome!). And now, I'm slowly re-entering the workforce but as an independent contractor, working only for former colleagues or referrals ... it is my goal in life to never again have to attend stupid meetings or fill out appraisal forms or worry about PTO balances. During those 30 years of hard work I've hopefully saved up enough to make this possible - time will tell ...

Michael

Who are you kidding? I retired at 55 after paying child support, paying for two kids in college, helping them financially after they were out of college and still do, had two divorces, and after 15 years of retirement, I still have plenty of money to spend. You and I both worked in the same field and I don't think you were ever married or had kids so if you don't have enough to retire, you must have had a really great time spending it.

As far as I can envision, your worst case scenario would be that you'd have to eventually sell your bay area house and cash out about $750K and move to your condo in Phoenix.

Gozit

- OK I see now... It wouldn't be worth it for me because I want to move to Europe where 4 weeks + public hols is the norm. But I do want to work in your field. Were/are you by chance a Technical Quality Manager?

Steerpike

I'm not quite as confident as you seem to be, but then ... you've actually experienced the 15 years and I'm just now contemplating them!

For my projections, I've split my 'future' between 'post-65' and 'pre-65'. For Post-65, I expect to have no mortgage, and at least $1m in retirement savings, and the maximum Social Security payment. I think that with $1m in savings, and an anticipated annual spend of about $60k, I should be OK; that won't pay for exotic vacations but should keep me off the streets. I'll have basic medical coverage and Social Security to back me up. for the 'pre-65' period, things are less clear. I have 10 years to get through and I'll need to use my non-retirement savings to cover that, with the possibility of high medical premiums (though helped significantly by Obamacare). I do believe I have enough, but I certainly don't feel like it's a no-brainer.

Selling and moving to Scottsdale is a definite fall-back, but not one I want to contemplate ...

All the above could crumble down if I got a debilitating illness. I'm also aware that, without kids to look after me in old-age, my later years may be something of a challenge ...

I'd be interested in running more detailed numbers by you since you've gone through this.

scrubbedexpat091

Retirement scares me, and I am only 35. Provided I can stay health and work til death, I will be okay, but what really scares me is becoming too old to work.

This whole getting old thing is very complicated, and very scary.

Not sure how much our 50 a month will add up to in 35-40 years...lol

SultanOfSwing

$24,000.00

Anyway, as the OP can see - being that there is no enforced annual leave allowance in the US, the actual, albeit anecdotal reports of what people get are all over the shop, ranging from shite (a week) to better than I got as a civil servant in the UK, if you don't include bank holidays.

I get 10 days. In my experience, around here in NE Illinois, 10 days seems to be pretty standard and actually with the six federal holidays I get (NYD, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Xmas Day) and three 'personal days', it's pretty easy to make ten days work, even allowing for taking a holiday, rather than a day off here and there. I usually use some combination of the two, allowing for five days to use for a trip, then the other five I take in fits and starts, usually around Christmas and then a long weekend in September before my leave resets on my anniversary. I believe after I've been here two years, that goes up to fifteen.

OK, compared to the 25 days and 11 bank holidays I got in the silly service, it seems a bit shite but I have adjusted and it's really OK. When I had the five weeks back home, usually I'd them almost all used up before the end of August. Getting fewer days means I am more careful with how I spread them out and it could always be worse, I may get none at all ...

That being said, OP, it really isn't all that bad here when all is said and done. I didn't hate the idea of the US before moving over though, quite the opposite, I spent some time visiting before I decided to move and I was quite enthusiastic about it. Then the honeymoon period wore off and I did start to really hate it, for a good few years, which was not pleasant.

Anyway, about two years ago I sort of gradually realised that being here didn't bother me anymore and actually began to think that I didn't want to move back to the UK either. Of course, the ****ed up spouse visa rules helped that along.

Having just spent three weeks in the UK, irrespective of how bad the reason was for being there, I was surprised to find that about halfway in, I started to miss being here in the US, which was unexpected.

But WGAF about all that, right? Long story short, you won't know how you will feel about it until you move here. Culture shock and homesickness can and often will occur, just search back for my posts between 2010 and mid-2012 too see what I mean there. It can be truly awful, I won't lie to you but that was entirely down to me and nothing to do with the US. It could have happened in any country.

It's always a risk moving to a new country but in a great many cases (not confident enough to say the majority but on BE a great many is accurate), it works out. Ultimately it's up to you. Best of luck whatever you decide.

Sally Redux

It's kind of up to you, but kind of not. There are things in the US that everyone knows are wrong (well most Europeans, shall we say), but blocks from their mind. Being back, I feel I can relax and not fight that all the time.

Pulaski

I'm not European, I'm British!

Hotscot

Still influenced by Calabasas I see...

Sally Redux

Hiro11

You see, Europeans are like this while Americans are like that. Understanding this just saves so much time!

Sally Redux

There are cultural differences.

fakey

When I moved here with my American ex-wife 15 years ago, I was pretty ambivalent about the place (she was the reason we relocated)

But as our plane circled over the glorious vista that is Newark airport in January, my heart sank- and that's how it stayed for several years if Im honest.
For a long time I liked the money here, but I didnt particularly like the place, or the people.
But over time I have changed my view.
There is a great deal here that is fantastic. I like the people a lot- I feel more at home here than in England, which really seems like a foreign country now

The issues mentioned by the op like gun control, universal health care etc really seem like irrelevancies - & the places I like most in the US more than make up for those non-issues - for me anyway
That said, no where is perfect, make of it what you will